The Gullible Center  —  So, can we talk about the Paul Ryan phenomenon?  —  And yes, I mean the phenomenon, not the man.  Mr. Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee and the principal author of the last two Congressional Republican budget proposals, isn't especially interesting.

White House has diverted $500M to IRS to implement healthcare law  —  The Obama administration is quietly diverting roughly $500 million to the IRS to help implement the president's healthcare law.  —  The money is only part of the IRS's total implementation spending, and it is being provided outside the normal appropriations process.

How We Spend  —  And what that tells us about the economy  —  EVEN AMERICANS WHO think they know where their money goes probably have no idea how their spending compares with that of their parents or grandparents.  But such figures yield a surprising picture of how our economy works—and how it's changing.

Major Republican Super PAC Prepares to Take On Obama  —  American Crossroads, the biggest of the Republican “super PACs,” is planning to begin its first major anti-Obama advertising blitz of the year, a moment the Obama re-election campaign has been girding for and another sign that the general election is starting in earnest.

NBC's Bad Edit Pre-dated Today Show And Still Appears on NBC News Sites  —  Saturday and Sunday, Reuters reported it had interviewed MSNBC News President Steve Capus and others at NBC and got “the fullest explanation yet” of the network's racially-charged, misleading edit of George Zimmerman's 911 call …

Fox Orlando Affiliate Calls Neo-Nazis ‘A Civil Rights Group’  —  The National Socialist Movement flag, as featured on their website  —  A Fox Orlando affiliate decribed Neo-Nazis as “a civil rights group” on a television broadcast and online.  The group of Neo-Nazis, known …

It's “Game On” In Chicago  —  One year in, the Obama campaign unleashes itself on America.  Confident, cool, digitally dynamic.  But are they getting cocky?  —  Amy Sly for BuzzFeed  —  CHICAGO, Ill. — On the evening of April 4, campaign manager Jim Messina gathered more than 300 staffers …

Romney campaign withdraws ad targeting Santorum while daughter is hospitalized  —  Mitt Romney's presidential campaign told stations across Pennsylvania to pull until further notice a television ad targeting fellow Republican candidate Rick Santorum because Santorum's daughter is ill. The ad was slated to begin airing this morning.

‘Orphan’ state parties worry GOP  —  National Republicans have begun to intervene in a handful of key Senate and House battlegrounds where state parties are in disarray, seeking to head off the possibility that local mismanagement could cost the party control of Congress.

Obama's Monthly Job Approval Edges Higher in March  —  Approval high among core supporters; still lags with Hispanics, low-income adults  —  PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama's job approval rating averaged 46% in March, up from 45% in January and February, and significantly improved …

Under the Supreme Court: High court agrees to consider corporate free speech post-Citizen United  —  The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider taking another bite of the corporate political free speech apple recently, accepting a petition asking justices to summarily overturn …

President Obama leads among ‘swing independents’  —  Independents like President Barack Obama better but feel ideologically closer to Mitt Romney, according to a new poll of a dozen battleground states released Monday.  —  The survey, conducted by Global Strategy Group for the moderate Democratic …

Mike Wallace dies: Veteran journalist and former ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent was 93  —  Advertisements for the CBS newsmagazine show “60 Minutes” once boasted that for anyone hiding a secret, four of the most dreaded words in the English language were “Mike Wallace is here.”